MacTech Blog

Jul 06

Pay TV penetration to exceed 50% in next two years

The worldwide pay-TV market surpassed more than 900 million subscribers in 1Q 2015, representing 48% penetration—the market is likely to grow steadily over the next 5 years, mainly boosted by emerging markets, according to ABI Research (www.abiresearch.com). Half of the world’s households will have access to pay-TV service by 2017, representing 1 billion subscribers, notes the research group.

As pay-TV service providers experience increasing competition from alternative platforms such as OTT [over-the-top], ARPU [average revenue per user] continues to decline across the various platforms in many markets. Many of the operators have added OTT, multiscreen services, and on demand services in order to compete with OTT service providers. These services have contributed additional revenue to pay-TV operators as well as maintaining customer loyalty.

Over the last two months the Spy introduced the motivation for he and Telecom engineer Benjamin Kowarsch developing a new language, or more precisely, a fully modern dialect of an existing notation--to address serious software engineering issues of safety, security, reliability, and extensibility--then offered something a little more than a "Hello World" as an initial example. In this piece, he briefly describes the baked-in building blocks of Modula-2 R10, that is the reserved symbols, words and reserved identifiers.

Modula-2 has always been smaller than but at least as expressive as any other mainstream general purpose language (including that thousand ton gorilla of notations known as Ada). Throughout the R10 design process, every proposed addition was scrutinized for necessity (use cases required) and potential for bloat. To mitigate the latter, in most cases, every addition required a deletion, so that the...

The wearables market maintained its upward trajectory in the first quarter of 2015 as new vendors, including Apple, prepared to enter the market.

A new forecast from International Data Corporation (www.idc.com) estimates that 72.1 million wearable devices will be shipped in 2015, up a strong 173.3% from the 26.4 million units shipped in 2014. Shipment volumes are expected to experience a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 42.6% over the five-year forecast period, reaching 155.7 million units shipped in 2019, according to the research group.

"The demand for basic wearables, those that do not run third party apps, has been absolutely astounding," says Jitesh Ubrani, senior research analyst, Worldwide Mobile Device Trackers, IDC. "Vendors like Fitbit and Xiaomi have helped propel the market with their sub-$100 bands, and IDC expects this momentum will continue throughout 2015."

Home automation was gaining attention and experiencing robust growth in 2014; however a new report by Argus Insights (www.argusinsights.com) reveals that sector is quickly losing steam.

The research group's data shows that as of May 2015 consumer demand for connected home devices such as thermostats, lightbulbs, locks, sensors and cameras experienced its first drop below the level of a year ago, a sign that consumer interest is stagnating.

"Based on our review of consumer interest, the state of home automation in 2015 is not looking good for anyone who sells or makes these devices," says John Feland, CEO and founder, Argus Insights. "Even though Google and Samsung made big purchases in this space by buying Nest thermostats, Dropcam and the suite of SmartThings products demand is stagnating. It is obvious that the early adopters have bought what they want and other consumers are expressing...

By the end of 2017, market demand for mobile app development services will grow at least five times faster than internal IT organizations' capacity to deliver them, according to Gartner, Inc. (www.gartner.com).

The research group forecasts mobile phone sales will reach 2.1 billion units by 2019, which will fuel demand for apps in the enterprise that meet the high performance and usability of consumer apps. Gartner principal research analyst Adrian Leow says enterprises find it a challenge to rapidly develop, deploy and maintain mobile apps to meet increasing demand, as it is exceedingly difficult and costly to hire developers with good mobile skills.

"Organizations increasingly find it difficult to be proactive against competitive pressures, which is resulting in their mobile apps becoming tactical, rather than strategic," he adds. "We're seeing demand for mobile apps outstrip available development capacity...

Consumer ability to access the internet and connected services while in the car remains strong, making driving or parking tasks easier. While interest is especially high for services which provide traffic updates, weather updates, open parking spaces, and navigation instructions, interest in social media functionality remains low.

A new report from Automotive Consumer Insights group (ACI) at Strategy Analytics (www.strategyanalytics.com), surveyed consumers in the US, Western Europe, and China regarding their interest in and preferred payment models for in-vehicle connectivity and connected services. Consumers remained interested in services which provided drive-relevant information; with access to in-vehicle connectivity playing an increasingly important role in the purchase decision of a vehicle, across all demographics. However, interest in some popular payment models for connectivity has...

Limelight Networks (www.limelight.com), which specializes in digital content delivery, has released new data that shows consumers are nearly always plugged in and are increasingly updating and adding content to their phones and other connected devices.

In addition, the research shows that consumers, especially Millennials, expect and demand a seamless and consistent experience when downloading digital content. Other findings illustrate the hunger for consuming digital content on smart phones, tablets, computers and gaming consoles. Forty nine percent of Millennials report that they are more likely to download content than just one year ago, versus 43% of all respondents. However, 75% of those surveyed currently find downloading content frustrating, especially when it takes too long to complete, gets interrupted, or simply doesn’t work.

A recent study from the In-vehicle UX group at Strategy Analytics (www.strategyanalytics.com) surveying consumers in the US and Western Europe has confirmed low interest in wearables for automotive use-cases.

While younger males and luxury car owners appeared to be most interested in the US, strong interest was below 20% across all Western European segments. Despite the market for wearables (and in particular smartwatches) poised for strong growth, wearables in automotive remain arguably a solution in search of a problem.

Investigating two key use cases for wearables in the car - i) detecting and monitoring a driver’s medical condition (i.e. a supplementary heart rate monitor); and ii) remote functionality, (such as remote start or automatic parking) – Strategy Analytics noted that interest in the use of wearables for on-board heart rate monitors was below 45% for both regions. Further,...

A new report from 451 Research (www.451research.com), an information technology research and advisory company, says cellular Internet of Things (IoT) and machine to machine (M2M) connections will increase nearly fourfold globally from 252 million in 2014 to 908 million in 2019. A monumental increase in active cellular IoT/M2M connections will be driven by a number of key factors, according to 451 Research.

First, hardware and bandwidth costs have dropped to a point where nearly every enterprise can reap the benefits of virtualizing the physical world. Second, cloud-based middleware and data platforms are making it easier to securely generate insights from machine data at greater scale than ever before possible. Last, the buzz around this topic is generating overall awareness of the transformational potential of IoT/M2M in terms of return-on-investment, competitiveness and support of completely new business...

The head mounted display market (HMD) will grow at a compound annual growth rate [CAGR} through 2019, according to ReportsnReports (www.reportsnreports.com).

Core virtual reality works well with the interactive world of games as currently no technology can give a fully immersive, 360 degree 3D experience, says the research group. Cost also has a considerable impact on the adoption of HMDs. Currently, the industrial sector is witnessing high adoption of these devices, but adoption among individual consumers is difficult unless low-cost micro displays are integrated in this technology to bring down their overall price, says ReportsnReports.

However, demand for Light-weight HMDs and need for enhanced safety and convenience are major head mounted display market growth drivers. Customization of HMDs and integration of HMDs in multiple tasks are market challenges while VR gaming and possibility of...

New data from Parks Associates (www.parksassociates.com) finds global OTT [over-the-top] video service subscription revenues will increase from nearly US$9 billion in 2014 to over $19 billion in 2019.

Currently, 57% of U.S. broadband households subscribe to an OTT video service. Among European broadband households, 57% in the U.K., 29% in Spain, and 24% in Germany subscribe to an OTT service. The research group also finds that in 2015, approximately 7% of all U.S. households, or 8.4 million households, subscribe to broadband and at least one OTT video service but do not subscribe to pay TV.

This figure includes consumers who have discontinued pay-TV service and those who have never subscribed to pay TV. In other Western nations, this same figure is approximately 4% or less among all households. Operators are introducing their own OTT services to appeal to consumers who are not currently...

The growth of sensor-based data combined with advanced algorithms and artificial intelligence (AI) are enabling smart machines to make increasingly significant business decisions over which humans have decreasing control, according to Gartner, Inc. (www.gartner.com).

"As smart machines become increasingly capable, they will become viable alternatives to human workers under certain circumstances, which will lead to significant repercussions for the business and thus for CIOs," says Stephen Prentice, vice president and Gartner Fellow. "In the 2015 Gartner CEO and business leader survey, opinions were equally divided on this issue and indicate that business leaders are starting to take notice of the advances being made and more readily acknowledge that the threat to knowledge work is real."

Already the growing capabilities of automation and robotics have led to their increasing deployment in a wide range of...

The collaborative robotics sector is expected to increase roughly tenfold between 2015 and 2020, reaching over US$1 billion from approximately US$95 million in 2015, according to a new study published by ABI Research (www.abiresearch.com).

The research group says the growth will be fueled by three key markets: electronics manufacturers and electronics manufacturing services companies, small-to-medium manufacturers, and manufacturers seeking robotic solutions optimized to support agile production methodologies.

"Collaborative robotic systems, such as ABB’s YuMi and Gomtec/Roberta platforms, Rethink Robotics’ Baxter and Sawyer, Universal Robots (Teradyne) UR family of robots, KUKA’s LBR iiwa and Kawada Industries’ Nextage, were developed in response to a number of pressing social drivers and businesses imperatives, and aided by ongoing technological innovation and dropping prices for powerful enabling...

New data from Parks Associates (www.parksassociates.com) finds that 51% of pay-TV subscribers are very interested in having unlimited space to store DVR recordings, which indicates strong consumer demand for cloud-based DVR services.

Currently, over 50% of U.S. broadband homes either include a DVR as part of their pay-TV subscription or have purchased one at retail. The research firm estimates the total number of cloud DVR subscribers in the U.S. will exceed 4.6 million by the end of 2015 and total 24 million by 2018.

"Consumer interest in cloud DVR features is strong, particularly the idea of unlimited storage capacity. As with any transition, there are challenges and opportunities for operators looking to expand their services into the cloud," says Brett Sappington, director of research at Parks Associates. "Operators are interested in cloud DVR because these services will reduce their...

The Internet of Things (IoT) continues to gain momentum as vendors and enterprises begin to embrace the opportunities this market presents. According to new research from IDC (www.idc.com), the worldwide Internet of Things market will grow from US$655.8 billion in 2014 to $1.7 trillion in 2020 with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 16.9%.

Devices, connectivity, and IT services will make up the majority of the IoT market in 2020. Together, they are estimated to account for over two-thirds of the worldwide IoT market in 2020, with devices (modules/sensors) alone representing 31.8% of the total. By 2020, IDC expects that IoT purpose-built platforms, application software, and "as a service" offerings will capture a larger percentage of revenue.
IDC's IoT taxonomy includes a view to the horizontal technology stack of hardware, software, services, and connectivity as well as a vertical view to the industries and use...

ABI Research (www.abiresearch.com) predicts that 5.4 billion SIM cards will ship during 2015 marking a modest YoY [year-over-year] growth rate of 4.1%. The days of double-digit shipment growth for SIM cards are over and declining ASPs [average sales prices] have forced smart card and IC vendors to change strategies, says the research group.

Vendor focus is now moving away from market share gains and up the value chain. This movement is driven by higher value product propositions such as SWP and LTE SIMs with the aim of maintaining reasonable revenue growth.

The transition from 2G to 3G and on to 4G is creating one of the bright spots contrasting against the gradual decline of SIM card ASPs. All of the top smart card vendors including Gemalto, Giesecke & Devrient, Oberthur Technologies, and Morpho are chasing these more lucrative segments. Not all regions are experiencing an easy transition from...

According to a new forecast from IDC (www.idc.com), the number of third-party applications designed to run on smart wearable devices is expected to grow from 2,500 at the end of 2014 to 349,000 in 2019.

While the majority of these applications will be consumer focused, the research group believes a significant opportunity exists for enterprise-oriented applications. Developers capable of delivering clear benefits and a transformative experience will catalyze demand and further accelerate application development on the supply side.

With the Apple Watch expected to capture up to two thirds of the smart wearable device market in 2015, Apple's influence on the wearable applications market will be considerable.

"It has been clear since well before it was launched that the Apple Watch, with the WatchKit SDK, is poised to set a tone for the broader market," says John Jackson, research vice president, Mobile and...

"With the majority of mobile traffic either originating or terminating indoors, Wi-Fi becomes a viable and robust access technology for 2G, 3G, and 4G mobile operators," says Nick Marshall, research director. "This is true whether the traffic is residential, which accounts for the majority of mobile traffic, enterprise, or venue."

In-building wireless data traffic will grow at a double-digit rate to reach more than 50 exabytes per month worldwide in 2020. Asia-Pacific will continue to consume almost half the worldwide in-building wireless traffic throughout the forecast period thanks to the large population in the region and its extensive Wi-...

Strategy Analytics (www.strategyanalytics.com) has identified that the camera of a smartphone is the most-used, on-device feature thus far, while also being a consumers’ number one priority when purchasing a new mobile device. It is clear that users are always looking for value-added features to improve their photo capturing experience.

A recent study from the Wireless Device Lab (WDL) at Strategy Analytics, surveying smartphone camera behaviors, found that when capturing a photo, consumers are most interested in "lining up the shot," "angling the camera correctly" or "positioning the subject the right way" prior to capturing a photo. Concern was highlighted when capturing photos in dim lighting, as shadows appeared on the photos and flash caused unwanted "red eyes" or "washed out skin color."

“To solve these issues, camera phone manufacturers need to work on improving the low...

In the first quarter of 2015, worldwide server shipments grew 13 percent year over year, while revenue increased 17.9% from the first quarter of 2014, according to Gartner, Inc. (www.gartner.com).

"The first quarter of 2015 was a particularly strong start to the year, with the strongest shipment growth since the third quarter of 2010, when the market was recovering from the downturn. It was also the second-largest-volume quarter ever," said Adrian O'Connell, research director at Gartner. "The market was driven by particularly strong demand from the hyperscale area, which benefited North America, in particular. This comes at a time when other regions are struggling, due to price pressure driven by the appreciation of the U.S. dollar. The strength in North America was strong enough to offset declines in Latin America and Japan. EMEA [Europe, the Middle East and Africa] was barely positive, with 1%volume growth." ...

Semi-autonomous features like adaptive cruise control (ACC) and traffic jam assist (TJA) represent early real-world tests for human-machine interaction (HMI). At their best, when operated correctly in proper conditions, ACC and TJA completely control all acceleration, braking, and steering, removing some of the cognitive load from the driver. From an HMI perspective, this presents the challenge of how to convey control and status information on a number of different subsystems, in an immediately clear and meaningful way to users.

A new expert evaluation of ACC and TJA implementations in 2015 model year vehicles by the Automotive Consumer Insights group (ACI) at Strategy Analytics (www.strategyanalytics.com), found that the current offering of semi-autonomous driving systems lacked refined HMIs.

"Current TJA and ACC systems do not reliably inform the driver when any driving assistant...

Notable brands like Target, Neiman Marcus, PF Chang’s, Staples, Michaels Stores, and Home Depot have all have become victims of point of sale (POS) security breaches targeting consumer payment card data. In the majority of cases, POS attacks take place due to malware infections, notes ABI Research (www.abiresearch.com).

During the past few years there has been a considerable rise in malware families including POSCardStealer, Dexter, Alina, vSkimmer, ProjectHook, BlackPOS and others, many of which can be easily purchased online, adds the research group. According to the 2014 Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report (DBIR), 198 total incidents related to POS intrusions were reported. ABI Research expects the total number of POS related security incidents with confirmed data exposure will hit 600 by the end of 2015.

The most sophisticated attacks are highly targeted, deploying hard-to-detect,...

The worldwide production print market enjoyed 7.5% year-over-year growth in unit shipments in the first quarter of 2015 (1Q15), according to IDC (www.idc.com). Unit shipments grew to approximately 11,167 units (printers and MFPs), and shipment value increased 3.6% to nearly US$1.2 billion in the same time period, according to the research group.

Highlights from the first quarter results include the following:

° All of IDC's regional markets saw positive year-over-year shipment growth in the production print market, with the exception of Latin America and the Middle East and Africa (MEA). Key contributors to the overall growth worldwide were Japan, which grew 12.4% year over year, Western Europe (13.7%) and Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan) (16.0%).

° All categories in the Production Print space recorded double-digit year-over-year gains. Mid-Production experienced 2.5% shipment growth, Production had 31.7%...

Worldwide personal and entry-level storage (PELS) shipments declined by -6.4% year over year and -13.6% sequentially, finishing the first quarter of 2015 (1Q15) with 17.6 million units, according to the International Data Corporation (www.idc.om). Shipment values declined along with unit shipments, down -11.6% from a year ago to U$1.5 billion, according to the research group.

"Broadly speaking, the size of this market has changed little over the past two and a half years. This is partly due to competition from public cloud offerings and partly due to a fundamental shift of media consumption preferences," says Jingwen Li, research analyst, Storage Systems, IDC. "It's important to note, however, that there are still untapped growth opportunities within this market. Personal and entry level NAS, for example, would benefit greatly from an increased level of marketing programs focused on building awareness."

Last month the Spy opined on the software crisis--safety, security, and reliability having been abandoned for quick-and-dirty-get-it-out-the-door and let the customers do our debugging, software has become prey for the black hats.

There are too many vulnerabilities in both commercial packages and the Internet, and one day this house of cards is going to come crashing down upon us all. We have sound software engineering techniques and universities such as the ivory basement where the Spy toils do teach them--but they are not used because too few developers are university trained, too many managers haven't a clue what those principles are, and have other priorities that do not necessarily eventuate in quality code, and too many people use tools that are not optimized for producing that quality code--even mitigate against doing so.

This month, the Spy will begin presenting a new dialect of Modula-2 that he and Telecom engineer...

The wearable band market grew over 150% as more than 7 million units were shipped in the first quarter of 2015, according to Canalys (www.canalys.com).

First place Fitbit saw major year-on-year volume growth, while greatly increased shipments of the affordable Mi Band, predominantly in China, secured Xiaomi second place. Garmin also had a strong quarter and rolled out two new products in its vívo line, says the research group. Canalys forecasts that 20 million Apple Watches will be shipped in 2015.

"Despite the Apple Watch requiring an iPhone, Apple’s impending entrance in quarter two had a negative impact on vendors such as Samsung. Discounting has been used to clear inventory in the channel," says Canalys Vice President and Principal Analyst Chris Jones. "The Apple Watch has set the benchmark for other smart watches and will make up the majority of shipments this year."

Worldwide Chromebook sales to end users is on pace to reach 7.3 million units in 2015, a 27% increase from 2014, according to Gartner, Inc. (www.gartner.com). Education is the primary market for Chromebooks and represented 72% of the global Chromebook market in 2014, says the research group.

"Since the first model launched in mid-2011, Google's Chromebook has seen success mainly in the education segment across all regions," says Isabelle Durand, principal analyst at Gartner. "In 2014, the education sector purchased 72% of Chromebooks in EMEA, 69% in Asia/Pacific, and 60%in the U.S."

In the business segment, purchases of Chromebooks remain low despite interest from small and midsize businesses (SMBs) and vertical industries. Google is increasingly targeting the business segment with its Chromebook for Work suite of office applications and has continuously improved access and functions by making more...

The worldwide Internet of Things (IoT) market is expected to grow 19% in 2015, led by digital signage, according to a new forecast from International Data Corporation (www.idc.com). The second annual forecast focuses on growing IoT use in 11 vertical industries, including consumer, retail, healthcare, government, manufacturing, transportation, and other industries, while also sizing IoT opportunities for 25 vertical-specific use cases.

Unlike any other research in the industry, the new forecast specifically highlights worldwide spending across IoT use cases, including smart appliances, automated public transit, remote health monitoring, digital signage, connected vehicles, and air traffic monitoring, among others. Key findings include:

° The IoT market in manufacturing operations will grow from US$42.2 billion in 2013 to $98.8 billion in 2018, a five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 18.6%. Growth will be...

For the second quarter in a row, Apple lost a substantial share of the tablet market as shipments declined and growth of the overall market remained stagnant, according to ABI Research (www.abiresearch.com).

For the fourth quarter (4Q) 2014, Apple shipped 21.42 million iPads, causing the company to experience an 18% year-over-year (YoY) decline. In its most recent quarter, the results for 1Q 2015 depicted the company only shipping 12.62 million iPads, resulting in a 23% year-over-year (YoY) decline.

Apple is not the only company to report declining shipments. Samsung also reported a YoY decline of 30% for 1Q 2015. In total, overall market shipments of OEM branded tablets experienced a YoY decline of 13%.

"There is no denying the market is losing its momentum," says ABI Research Analyst Stephanie Van Vactor. "The market is in the process of going through a transition as developed markets...

A growing roster of smart home services and device providers are using home security monitoring as a beachhead to introduce home automation services. In the key U.S. market, a bellwether for developed markets around the world, some 15 million more U.S. homes will invest in new connected home security services in the next 5 years, according to ABI Research (www.abiresearch.com).

"After decades where penetration into U.S. households stalled, home security adoption is set for significant growth. However, it will not be the sole preserve of traditional professionally monitored home security providers. Consumers can now choose from an array of non-traditional suppliers, new technologies, and innovative services that balance value with cost," says Jonathan Collins, principal analyst, ABI Research.

Through managed smart home offerings from retailers such as Lowes and Staples as well as standalone devices...

Harbortouch (www.harbortouch.com), a supplier of point of sale (POS) systems, has published the results of a recent survey investigating the changing attitudes consumers have toward mobile payments technology.

The results of the survey of 1,000 U.S. adults, fielded in April 2015, examined the current state of mobile payment adoption, and demonstrated a shift in consumers' comfort level and acceptance, with a greater focus on interface and experience.

Mobile payment applications like Apple Pay and Google Wallet are enabling consumers to leave their cash, credit and debit cards at home, and pay for dinner or shop with friends all by simply using a mobile device. Early adopters are already reaping the benefits of this technology.

The Harbortouch survey took a deeper look into the current mobile payment landscape. Some of the more interesting findings include:

Mobile data traffic, generated by smart phones, feature phones and tablets will approach almost 197,000 PB (Petabytes) by 2019, equivalent to over 10 billion Blu-ray movies, according to Juniper Research (www.juniperrsearch.com).

However, the research group found that only 41% of the data generated by these devices will be carried over cellular networks by 2019, with the majority of mobile data traffic offloaded to Wi-Fi networks. Juniper Research estimates that the average monthly data usage by smartphone and tablet users will double over the next four years. The daily media consumption by mobile users will continue to rise, bolstered by the rise in 4G adoption and factors such as HD video usage.

“"Certainly, video is forming an ever-greater proportion of network traffic. For example, Juniper Research anticipates that video traffic over smartphones will increase by nearly 8 times between 2014...

A survey by Absolute Software Corp. (www.absolute.com) — which specializes in endpoint security and management solutions for computers, laptops, tablets and smartphones — says Millennials prove to be a greater risk to data security as compared to other user categories.

The report provides insight into employee attitudes toward IT security and their behaviors on corporate-owned mobile devices. Based on usage preferences and content accessed, the results offer an eye-opening perspective on the security risks associated with employee mobile device usage, depending on company size, employee age, their role, and the number of devices they use. The report demonstrates clear differences in generational behavior and associated risks related to data security.

Millennials versus Baby Boomers:
° 64% of Millennials use their employer-owned device for personal use, as opposed to 37% of Baby Boomers.

More U.S. households now own a smartphone than a desktop, according to new research that Parks Associates (www.parkassociates.com) will discuss at the 19th-annual CONNECTIONS: The Premier Connected Home Conference. The conference runs May 19-21 in San Francisco.

In the last five years, desktop adoption declined from 90% to 69% among U.S. broadband households, while smartphone adoption increased from 36% to 78%, according to the research group. Tablet adoption increased from 7% to 63%.

"The U.S population has made a dramatic shift to mobile devices and services, which they are using to access content in the cloud and check the smart devices in their connected home," saysStuart Sikes, president, Parks Associates. "At CONNECTIONS, we will analyze the implications of this new post-desktop world."

The traditional telecom business has become a challenging environment to find growth and sustain profits. Beyond subscriber saturation (no one new to sell things to), this situation is exacerbated by pricing wars for traditional services (driven by T-Mobile/Sprint) and encroachment from OTT players into traditional communication services (Skype/WhatsApp).

New revenue growth initiatives must be developed for the future. Verizon buying AOL is one such example of how telecom operators will seek to transform themselves and take different positions higher up the stack in the digital ecosystem, according to 451 Research (www.451research.com).

AOL has seen its fortunes shift (as in steady revenue growth) in the past couple of years on the back of its programmatic advertising platform. Programmatic advertising describes a highly automated platform for buying, placing and optimizing media inventory to...

There will be 1.6 billion video viewers worldwide at end of 2015, increasing to 1.9 billion in 2019, according to new data from the Parks Associates research group (www.parksassociates.com).

The global LTE user base will top 700 million in 2015, led by substantial subscriber gains in the U.S., Europe, China, and Latin America. The research firm based its findings on in-depth calculations from NUMBERS, a service forecasting adoption and revenue growth for connected products and services within the connected home ecosystem. "With the proliferation of content and streaming options, providing a best-in-class user experience becomes increasingly critical to pay-TV providers and CE manufacturers in terms of increasing sales, subscriptions, and usage," says Barbara Kraus, director of Research, Parks Associates. "Access to desired content is critical, as is ease and speed of search, sufficient broadband...

New market data from ABI Research (www.abiresearch.com) forecasts that market for in-building wireless equipment and deployments will more than double the current market by 2020.

North America will continue to be the region with maximum DAS spend with sports venues, transportation, and healthcare remaining the verticals which attract the most DAS investment with shopping malls and hospitality coming in a close second place, says the research group. Together, these verticals in North America account for just under half of DAS spending. North America is followed by Asia-Pacific and then Europe, respectively, for market size.

"While the Asia-Pacific region accounts for just one-fifth of the total market, we forecast it to be the fastest growing region and to represent over 25% of the market by 2020," says Nick Marshall, research director at ABI Research. "China dominates the activity in the Asia-...

According to the IDC (www.idc.com) research group, the overall certified workstation market experienced disappointing growth in the first quarter of 2015 (1Q15) after seven consecutive quarters of strong growth.

Worldwide shipments for the quarter recorded a year-over-year decline of -1.7%, less than forecast projected growth of 2.4%. Overall shipments fell to 838,400 compared to 858,667 in the same quarter a year ago. Emerging markets continued to perform better than developed markets with a quick turnaround in the Middle East and Africa (MEA) region after a decline of -15.2% year-over-year in the fourth quarter of 2014. MEA was the fastest growing region in 1Q15 with 11.0% year-over-year growth and gained global market share of 0.5 points sequentially and 0.3 points year-over-year.

For the first time in five consecutive quarters, the Latin America region was not able to achieve double-digit growth although it did...

A new report from the IHS (www.ihs.com) research group says that embedded touch displays, including in-cell and on-cell touch displays, are forecast to have a nearly 40% share of touch module shipments for mobile phone applications this year. In-cell and on-cell touch displays for mobile phones grew 47% year-over-year (Y/Y), which was 36% of shipments in 2014.

Apple and Samsung have more than 40% of the global smartphone market, and the growing use of in-cell and on-cell touch technologies by these two companies is driving the direction of the overall touch sensor market. Japan Display also uses hybrid in-cell touch displays in some tier-one brands from LG, Xiaomi, and Huawei.

The rapid development of LTE-U standards and the increasing number of its proponents brings into question the relationship between cellular network and Wi-Fi, according to ABI Research (www.abiresearch.com).

"While a number of mobile operators, especially Wi-Fi laggards, would strongly back LTE-U and look forward to it to compensate for late or poor Wi-Fi adoption, the carrier Wi-Fi space continues to grow, attracting other players like fixed and cable operators. We expect a total shipment of nearly two million units in 2015,” says Ahmed Ali, an analyst at the research group. "Wi-Fi calling, for example, provides opportunities for non-mobile carriers to enter and compete in the wireless market. Also, dual-SSID gateways allow operators with massive home and enterprise footprints to move into public Wi-Fi segment through community Wi-Fi."

According to a new IDC report (www.idc.com) worldwide risk information technologies and services (RITS) spending will reach US$78.6 billion in 2015 and is expected to reach $96.3 billion by 2018 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6.97% during the 2013–2018 forecast period. Key highlights from the new report include:

° Total IT spending for the worldwide financial services market for 2015 is forecast to reach $458.4 billion for hardware, software, and internal and external IT services. By the end of the forecast period in 2018, this spending will reach $522.3 billion.

° The components of this total market devoted to risk management will account for an average of 17.1% of overall spending by CIOs, CTOs, risk and compliance officers, and line-of-business IT executives in 2015, growing to 18.4% of total spending by 2018. Both percentages are up slightly from the previous forecast.

New research from Juniper Research (www.juniperrsearch.com) has found that global brand and retail spend on digital marketing activities will reach $200 billion this year, up by 15% on 2014 levels.

The research group says that nearly 70% of the net increase on digital marketing spend this year would be concentrated on mobile and tablet devices, as brand strategies evolve to deliver campaigns within an omni-channel digital environment. According to the research, factors behind the migration to smartphones and tablets include their capabilities to enable timely, targeted, personalized campaigns, to enhance customer engagement and to analyse the relative success of campaigns.

Juniper Research noted that, in the case of mobile coupons, redemption rates were typically significantly higher and costs per redemption much lower than for traditional mechanisms such as direct mail or newspaper coupons....

Global revenues from smart home automation systems will grow at a 21% CAGR [compound annual growth rate] between 2015 and 2020, according to ABI Research (www.abiresearch.com). North America will account for the lion’s share of the smart home automation system revenues in 2020, contributing close to 46% globally, followed by Europe and Asia-Pacific, says the research group.

"Higher quality of service assurance and longer battery life are primary drivers for the continued adoption of proprietary technologies in smart home security”
“Smart home automation system revenue was primarily driven by mass consumer adoption of smart home security systems but the market is also witnessing strong revenue growth from the adoption of smart plugs and smoke and air quality monitors," says ABI Research Senior Analyst Adarsh Krishnan.

Regional differences are also reflected in device adoption. In 2014, North...

The worldwide consumer Wi-Fi equipment market increased 5% in 2014, surpassing 166.1 million unit shipments, according to ABI Research (www.abiresearch.com).

"Shipments of devices which support the 802.11ac standard grew significantly in 2014, representing more than 11% of total access point shipments," says Jake Saunders, vice president and practice director, ABI Research. "In 2014, total shipments of consumer Wi-Fi devices with the 802.11n standard declined 3% from 2013. New generation 802.11ac products are expected to gain market share in the years to come. ABI Research expects that nearly 71 million 802.11ac access points will be shipped in 2015."

Since 802.11ac device shipments started to accelerate, the market share of devices with older generation Wi-Fi standards has started to decline. In 2014, total shipments of consumer Wi-Fi devices with the 802.11n standard declined 3% from 2013. New...

The Technavio (www.technavio.com) research group has published a report saying the global tablet touchscreen market is expected to grow at a CAGR [compound annual growth rate] of 11.5% from 2015-2019.

The report draws attention towards the availability of low-cost tablets as well as increased internet penetration in emerging markets like China and India, which has led tablet shipments to increase by a significant amount.

"A number of local market participants have started introducing tablets in their respective countries, which is expected to increase tablet sales considerably over the forecast period," says Faisal Ghaus, vice president of Technavio.

The new Technavio report also emphasizes the emergence of multi-touch screens, which is expected to propel market growth in the coming years. Multi-touch is seen only in capacitive touchscreen displays and not in resistive touchscreen displays, and...

Research firm Parks Associates (www.parksassociates.com) reports 47% of U.S. broadband households have privacy or security concerns about smart home devices. The connected home industries need to formalize strategies, such as consumer privacy rights, in order to push these markets forward, according to the research group.

"Recent high-profile media reports of hacks into smart baby monitors and connected cars, whether valid or not, have heightened consumer concerns over privacy and security for connected home systems," says Tom Kerbersaid, director of Research, Home Controls & Energy, Parks Associates. "Companies need to move quickly to reinforce the security of their solutions as well as ensure the consumer's right to privacy."

Parks Associates says that if firms offer a bill of rights to consumers, specifically the rights to be invisible, to approve who uses the data, and to be erased,...

Video infrastructure markets, including broadcast pre- and post-production, video encoding, and VOD and CDN hardware, continue to grow at a relatively healthy pace of 37% over the next five years, despite the impact of virtualization separating hardware and software requirements, according to ABI Research (www.abiresearch.com).

"Broadcasters and operators virtualizing their workflow are likely to buy classic IT servers, while continuing to rely on video specialists for their application and software requirements," says ABI Research Practice Director Sam Rosen. "In theory, this means that video vendors are supplying less of the total solution; however, rising overall business complexity of areas, including ad workflows and over-the-top delivery, are offsetting this downward pressure on revenues."

"The encoder and transcoder market represents the brightest spot in the video industry. Growth in this sub...

According to the latest 451 Research Vendor Window from 451 Research (www.451Research.com), Amazon Web Services (AWS) remains the leader in Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) adoption among enterprise IT buyers.

These findings are based on responses from over 1,500 global IT professionals, including 1,000 unique vendor evaluations. The 451 Research Vendor Window assessment is based on both overall enterprise adoption rates and customer ratings of vendor performance.

AWS is used by the majority of enterprise IaaS customers in the study (57%) and is also cited as the most important IaaS provider by 35% of these current IaaS customers. Additionally, AWS received some of the highest ratings overall for its ability to fulfill customer needs, particularly in terms of experience and technical innovation. Other important findings from the 451 Research Vendor Window for IaaS include:

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